Growing up in Central Illinois, I had very little exposure to diverse cuisine. If your only exposure was visiting the Illinois State Fair you might find yourself at the “Village of Cultures.” 🤣

The name is pretty cringey but take note: before it used to be the “Ethnic Village.” So let’s go on a tour of the “cultures” as they exist in today’s Illinois State Fair, the year of our lord 2021, running counter clockwise. 👇🏼

Cautionary tale for anyone with less tech savvy folks in their lives. My parents were almost scammed yesterday by someone calling and claiming to be Apple.

They happen to be visiting me right now, and if not for that the scam might have been successful. They used social engineering and a series of seemingly escalating events to make it seem like they were indeed being hacked in real time.

Somehow they had the last 4 digits of a debit card. Unclear if they unknowingly gave that up earlier in the call or what…

After digging into the weeds with @discourse, I think it’s an extremely underrated platform, especially as an internal solution for asynchronous communication and documentation.

discourse.org What I like about it:

🛠 It’s open source and extensible with plugins
💬 Its UX for handling multi-threaded conversation is powerful
📕 Threads can seamlessly transition to evergreen documentation
📫 Default asynchronous means less chatty, more thinky

Just got a COVID test from @cvspharmacy since I traveled this weekend and visited my family.

Went really smoothly and fast too. Not bad at all. Only downside is that it’s a few days wait for the result. On day 8 of “a few days”. Here’s what I now see when trying to view my test results.

tl;dr on my experience with hey.com so far:

🤩 This is the best change to email since Gmail, and I don't say that lightly.
👏🏼 @basecamp has dropped an impressive 1.0, and I'm excited to see where it goes next.
👇🏼 Here's a mini review and hopes for the future First, I love how it completely re-imagines the entire setup.

Tired:
❌ Anyone can email you
❌ Traditional inbox
❌ Sent folder
❌ Archive

Wired:
✅ Screen incoming senders
✅ Sent, Archive, Seen, all now "Previously Seen"
✅ Triage "Reply Later" and pins as separate actions

We will hear this from many companies in the coming year and beyond.

As companies transition from early reluctance and lack-of-productivity, they will be forced to adapt. Those adaptations will cause them to realize that distributed work is both possible and can be productive.

https://twitter.com/hnshah/status/1254828920899239937

Another one

https://twitter.com/austen/status/1260659150817640448?s=21

https://t.co/GVvmZygsEi

First episode of Amateur Hour is live. It’s not good but @ShaneMac told me to upload it by end of day today, because perfect is the enemy of good.

I've never really done video before, so this is all one grand experiment but I'm excited.

Here goes: The whole premise behind Amateur Hour is learning new things and solving problems together with someone. We’ll explore new products, tips & tricks with apps folks already use, and maybe try to learn a thing or two.

Something of a serene morning

Thanks! The peg board is custom. Got the idea from a cafe years ago (can’t remember which one). Built it using one sheet of Birch plywood and a bunch of 1” dowels.

I wanted something that would be functional, organized, and attractive. Fun project!

cc @jonmadera

https://twitter.com/EmilyHvn/status/1237593539237707777

One challenge was getting 90° holes straight in. The holes needed to be spot on as the pegs would need to grip, and remain straight.

Built a jig to do it but that wasn’t going to scale. Got a drill guide and that solved it! Used a 1” Forstner bit to bore the holes.

Idea: a platform for conference organizers to throw high quality events where the attendees (and most if not all speakers) are remote. Large gatherings of people in one place can be incredible, and I feel lucky to have enjoyed many wonderful events. But:

1. Travel is not accessible by all
2. Events can put an incredible strain on local ecosystems (can also be a boon)
3. Things like COVID-19 can shut it all down

Today we’re announcing that @InterchangeHQ has been acquired by @krakenfx. Seeing Interchange at and supported by a major player in crypto made a ton of sense, and both will be in a great place to learn a lot from each other. 🙏🏼
theblockcrypto.com/2019/07/31/kra… My sincerest appreciation and thanks to everyone that’s been a part of the @PicksCo story… from the many investors that supported us with their valuable time and capital, to our especially awesome team (@floraworley @darickdang @BuddyLindsey @bobbyblackstock and Matt Rasband)